Removing false code dependencies to speedup software build processes

The development of large software systems involves a continual lengthy build process that may include preprocessing, compilation and linking of tens of thousands of source code files. In many cases, much of this build time is wasted because of false dependencies between implementation files and their respective header files. We present a graph algorithm and a programming tool that discovers and removes false dependencies among files. We show experimentally that the resulting preprocessed code is more compact, thereby contributing to faster build processes.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: CASCON
• Authors: Yijun Yu, Homayoun Dayani-Fard, John Mylopoulos
• Keywords: CASCON 2003, CASCON 2007, False Dependencies, Lengthy Build Process, Respective Header files